Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, Jeremy Luban, and Gabriel Victora
A large TWiV panel remembers Ralph Steinman, and considers a new innate sensor of retroviral capsids.
Photograph of a dendritic cell (green) interacting with T cells (cyan) near a blood vessel by Gabriel Victora.
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Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 157 (90 MB .mp3, 125 minutes).
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Links for this episode:
- HG Khorana obituary
- DC discovery: four seminal papers (one, two, three, four)
- Ralph Steinman videos from Lasker Award
- TRIM5 is an innate immune retroviral sensor (Nature)
- TWiV on Facebook
- Letters read on TWiV 157
Weekly Science Picks
Dickson – Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Rich – Battlestar Galactica
Alan – Coleman LED quad lantern
Gabriel – A History of Immunology by Arthur M. Silverstein
Jeremy – Principles of Virology by Flint, Enquist, Racaniello, Skalka
Vincent – Principles of Molecular Virology by AJ Cann
Listener Pick of the Week
David – Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot (YouTube)
Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.
DO NOT POST OR DISCUSS THIS E-MAIL.
Hello Vincent, Dickson, and Rich,
In a previous e-mail I suggested a discussion of the U.S. government’s  preoccupation with the development of viral military weapons. Wisely, you declined the invitation.
Obviously, the topic cannot be discussed directly. Nevertheless, because the twiV audience is knowledgeable and sophisticated, it is not necessary to spell out the government’s research on and its stockpiling of viral weapons. If the viral research is presented, knowledgeable listeners will be able connect the dots.
Perhaps having virologists on the program discussing the Marburg, Hanta, Ebola, Lujo and other exotic deadly viruses could be the approach. The bonus would be statements by one or more researchers stating that they are not permitted to speak about certain aspects of their research.
Warm Regards,
Robin Ballantyne M.D.